The Don Margolis Blog

Featuring the most comprehensive collection of "disease specific" stem cell treatment articles in the world. We provide the most current, factual and comprehensive information on available stem cell treatments today for your specific medical condition.

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MAN OUT OF WHEELCHAIR AFTER STEM CELL THERAPY

A man with a spinal cord injury suffered 10 years ago has improved his quality of life tremendously after receiving adult stem cells in a new stem cell treatment in Costa Rica. Paralyzed in a roofing accident, Jason Slawson was in a wheelchair for 10 years before he went for stem cell therapy and now is using a walker.

LIFTED OUT OF DEPRESSION AS WELL AS HIS WHEELCHAIR

The stem cell treatment has given Jason confidence as well as lifting him out of depression he was feeling (not to mention lifting him out of his wheelchair). From sleeping all day to forget about his depression to working 7 days a week after the stem cell therapy.

BACK TO WORK AFTER ADULT STEM CELL TREATMENT

From the stem cell article: While in Costa Rica, progress was immediately apparent, muscles he had not used in a decade were contracting and spasms that were violent enough to shake the walls in his home subsided. He admits the road to recovery is still rocky at times. “I am still using the walker and some days I’m not strong enough to make it in public, but I use it every day when I am at home,” Slawson said. “There are days when my legs instantly buckle.”

ARE ADULT STEM CELLS A FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH?

Slawson said he believes that in taking the steps to get back on his feet, he may have discovered the fountain of youth. As his muscles are slowly regenerating and feeling is returning to his lower extremities, Slawson said the stem cell therapy also cured carpel tunnel syndrome. “Before I went to Costa Rica I needed surgery to repair my wrists, I was in a lot of pain from 10 years of gripping and pulling myself in my wheelchair,” Slawson said, with a grin. “Today, I stopped to look at myself in the mirror - and I think I am looking younger.”

MOTHER KNOWS BEST

Jason's mother also sees the difference - Schirman said the $40,000 the family pulled together to send Slawson and his wife to Costa Rica was the best investment they could have made for their son’s future. She said he is a changed man who is now staring life in the face instead of hanging his head in defeat.

While she said the physical improvements are more than she ever imagined, she knows the emotional and mental healing far outweighs those benefits. “More important than the physical progress is his renewed sense of self-confidence and hope,” Schirman said. “He is willing to take risks again, gets out every day and is even talking about raising a family of his own.”

ADULT STEM CELLS- NOT AVAILABLE IN THE USA

A very nice story. While the USA is obsessed with Geron and their embryonic stem cell trial that isn't working, American patients go abroad for adult stem cells that are helping people now. As long as adult stem cells aren't used in the US, it doesn't matter how much money Obama throws to stem cell research.

Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.

Stimulating stem-cell growth naturally

The excitement over the tremendous healing and anti-aging power of stem cells continues to build up toward a frenzied acceptance of this new wonder treatment. But stem cells are not new; they are as old as time itself. They have been and always will be inside us.

The approach, however, in harvesting, cultivating and reinfusing stem cells into one’s own system is expensive and not within the reach of the average person. The public is also confused with an avalanche of information on which stem-cell clinic to consult, what stem-cell approach is best, what kind of stem cells to use—whether from a sheep or one’s own adult stem cell.

Despite the Department of Health’s guidelines regarding the superior safety of using adult stem cells over animal sources, the debates continue.

If one were to choose adult stem cells, should it be autologous (coming from your own), or are Russian bone marrow stem cells better than the Japanese women’s placenta stem cells? Better yet, why not have your very own bone marrow stem cells taken from the back of your hip?

The role of bone marrow stem cells in the healing of the body due to degenerative diseases from accidents and surgeries has been recognized. And its dramatic effect in changing the course of one’s life has been hailed by medical experts as something close to a miracle...

There is another way to derive benefits from your own stem cells. Its source and supply is inside you. Stem cells are found in your brain, blood, bone marrow, fat and skin tissues.

For example, any trauma to the skin and bones naturally triggers the release of bone marrow stem cells. The immediate response is the quick migration of bone marrow stem cells to the injured site.

In the case of burn victims, it was noted that a rapid increase (up to nine times) of bone marrow stem cells was observed in the blood.

What, then, can one do in order to encourage the body to increase stem-cell proliferation?

What can you do in order to affect your own stem cells in a positive way?

It is imperative to understand that there are negative lifestyle habits that greatly suppress the body’s ability to produce and release stem cells. These include cigarette smoking, stress, lack of sleep, emotional extremes, lazy lifestyle and poor nutrition.

So: Don’t smoke; manage your stress positively; get seven to nine hours of good sleep nightly; be in a happy state; exercise daily for 30-45 minutes; do vigorous exercise once a week; eat/drink healthy; and supplement with vitamins plus extra doses of zinc and selenium.

Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.

Stem Cell Therapy Proven to Increase Memory

We’ve all come to accept the notion that our brain will continue to shrink as we age. Nowhere is this decline more impactful than in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, one of the primary brain areas that’s first to decline in Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers measuring the size of the hippocampus using MRI scans demonstrate a clear correlation between shrinkage of the hippocampus and declining cognitive function. So, at least as it relates to the hippocampus, size does matter.

Challenging the status quo notion that loss of hippocampal function is inevitable is new and exciting research showing that we have the potential to actually grow new cells in this vitally important are of the brain, expanding the hippocampus in size and enhancing memory function.

The growth of new cells in the brain, neurogenesis, is enhanced under the influence of a specific protein called BDNF. And while there is no pharmaceutical approach to increasing BDNF, animal research has long recognized that aerobic exercise causes a robust increase in BDNF levels and as a consequence increases both the growth of new cells in the hippocampus as well as increase in memory.

But while the animal research has long confirmed the relationship between aerobic exercise and the growth of new brain cells, this relationship has been only recently demonstrated to occur in humans.

Neuroscientist Kirk Erikson and his research team at the University of Pittsburgh publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science studied a group of 120 adults over a one year span. Half the group was given a stretching program to perform 3 times each week while the other half did engaged in 3 days of aerobics.

After one year, the 2 groups were evaluated looking at 3 parameters. First, using MRI scans, the change in size of the hippocampus was calculated. Second, serum measurements before and after the trial were measured. And finally, the study actually measured memory function at the beginning and end of the trial.

The results were breathtaking. While the group doing the stretching program manifested a decline in memory, hippocampal size and BDNF levels, the aerobics group showed not only improvement in memory, but an actually increase in the size of the hippocampus accompanied by an increase in their blood levels of BDNF. The authors concluded: “These results clearly indicate that aerobic exercise is neuroprotective and that starting an exercise regimen later in life is not futile for either enhancing cognition or augmenting brain volume.” Simply stated, this landmark research demonstrated that aerobic exercises increases the growth of new stem cells in the human brain, and these stem cells mature to become fully functioning neurons.

What’s more, research just published several weeks ago in the Journal of the American Medical Associationshowed that blood levels of BDNF almost perfectly predict future risk for developing dementia as long as 10 years in the future.

The results of these studies have huge implications. There is no effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and yet, simple aerobic exercise can turn on the genetic machinery to manufacture BDNF, the brain’s “growth hormone,” creating new stem cells that become fully functioning neurons in the brain’s memory center and actually improving memory. Despite the lack of any pharmaceutical development to enhance this process, you have direct control of your BDNF levels and thus the fate of your brain.

You can increase your BDNF levels and enhance the growth of new brain cells and memory. Here’s how:

Engage in regular aerobic exercise. I recommend 20 minutes per day, 6 days each week. A good target heart rate is around 180 minus your age. Your specific target rate will depend on your level of fitness as well as medications you may be taking.

The omega-3 DHA, like aerobic exercise, has been shown to activate the genes that turn on BDNF production. So take a supplement that contains DHA. DHA is available in fish oils as well as algae-derived (suitable for vegetarians). While krill oil is popular, the DHA content is typically only 10% of fish or algae-based products.

Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.

Europe recommends approval for first stem-cell therapy

LONDONFri Dec 19, 2014 8:08am EST

(Reuters) - European regulators have recommended approval of the first medicine containing stem cells to treat a rare condition caused by burns to the eye.

The European Medicines Agency said on Friday that Holoclar, from privately held Italian company Chiesi, had been given a green light for moderate to severe limbal stem cell deficiency due to physical or chemical burns. Left untreated, the condition can result in blindness.

Holoclar is a living tissue product made from a biopsy taken from a small undamaged area of the patient’s cornea and grown in the laboratory using cell culture.

The recommendation by the European agency will now be sent to the European Commission for the adoption of a decision on an EU-wide marketing authorization.

Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.

EU's top court opens door to some stem cell patents

A piece of a three-dimensional bone structure obtained from the own adipose stem cells of a patient is seen at Brussels' Saint Luc Hospital January 14, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Yves Herman

(Reuters) - Europe's top court has opened the door to certain stem cell patents in the European Union by ruling that an organism incapable of developing into a human being is not a human embryo and may be patented.

Thursday's judgment by the European Court of Justice was made following a case brought in Britain by U.S. company International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCO.PK) over whether it could patent processes covering the use of human egg cells.

The case is significant because three years ago the EU court ruled that stem cell research involving human embryos could not be patented, a decision condemned at the time by some scientists as a "devastating" blow for medical research in Europe.

As a result of that 2011 ruling, Britain's patent office objected to a patent application from the California-based company.

Although work on stem cell therapies is still experimental, researchers believe they have potential to treat a range of diseases from Parkinson's to blindness. But rigid curbs on obtaining patents could hobble their commercialization.

International Stem Cell, however, uses processes based on unfertilized human eggs and the EU court ruled that such eggs should be excluded from the ban on embryo-derived stem cell patents, if it was proven they could not develop into human beings.

"The mere fact that a parthenogenetically-activated human ovum commences a process of development is not sufficient for it to be regarded as a 'human embryo'," the court ruled. Parthenogenesis is the development of unfertilized eggs.

The court said it left it to British judges to determine whether the specific cells used by the U.S. company lacked the inherent capacity of developing into human beings and therefore met these criteria.

Adam Cooke, a partner at law firm DLA Piper, representing International Stem Cell, said the court's decision was "a big step in the right direction". In addition to the patent application in Britain, the company is also seeking patents at the European Patent Office.

Its parthenogenetic stem cells are in pre-clinical development for treating severe diseases of the eye, the nervous system and the liver.

Stem cell research has long been controversial. Critics argue that using embryonic stem cells is wrong because obtaining these cells involves the destruction of embryos which are left over from fertility treatment.

Scientists contend the research is justified, since the embryonic stem cells they use are cell lines derived from original surplus eggs that can be maintained indefinitely. While adult stem cells are also being investigated as potential medicines, they are less flexible than embryonic ones.

Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, killing 292,188 women in 2009—that’s 1 in every 4 female deaths.1

Although heart disease is sometimes thought of as a "man's disease," around the same number of women and men die each year of heart disease in the United States. Despite increases in awareness over the past decade, only 54% of women recognize that heart disease is their number 1 killer.2

The fact is, women have heart attacks at about the same rate as men...but their stem cells ARE still better. Male or female, if you have cardiac disease, there is hope!

Above is a pig heart, which has been stripped of all its cells, leaving only the scaffolding to grow a new heart with human stem cells. This approach may be used in the future to repair heart damage or even generate new hearts for transplantation. Pig hearts are used because they are of a similar size and complexity to human hearts.

“We always knew women were awesome,” said Doris Taylor, director of Regenerative Medicine Research at the Texas Heart Institute. “Now we have the science to back it up.”

Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.

"BUBBLE BABY" CURE!
Groundbreaking! First ever! Pioneers! New breakthrough!
There's only one problem...

THE OFFENSE:
It gets harder and harder to celebrate the medical advances when the media and medical industry promote those advances as "the world's first" and...they are completely lying with abundant documented proof to the contrary.

THIS WEEKS (BS) HEADLINES:

Doctor discovers cure for 'Bubble Baby' disease

Stem Cell Researcher Pioneers Gene Therapy Cure for ...

and from our friends a CIRM:

"Today, a UCLA research team...announced a stunning breakthrough cure..."

THE PROBLEM:
So what's the problem? Nothing much, just that they are 12 years late!

In 2002, Israeli and Italian Scientists treated and cured two babies with "Bubble Baby" disease, the rare and fatal hereditary condition known as Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, or SCID. The two babies, a two-year-old baby girl named Salsabil from East Jerusalem and an Italian girl, received a correctly functioning gene in place of the faulty gene that causes the disease...both babies have returned to their homes and are leading normal lives. via

THE PROOF:
Notice these headlines and their associated dates.

New gene therapy protocol: First successful treatment for 'bubble babies' - Jerusalem - June 21, 2002 (This actually is the first in the world! - RSCI)

We at RSCI are particularly bothered by this story because the accomplishments of a great man and brilliant doctor and scientist are going unsung so the "California Institute of Revisionist Medicine" can spout their misinformation and claim an huge and unearned victory.

THE PUNCH LINE:
The doctor who cured the first 'bubble baby' in the world has been not only a friend, but also a member of our scientific board and a premier treatment destination of RSCI since the inception of our organization.

Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.

GUWAHATI: A 61-year-old heart patient from Silchar successfully underwent a stem cell operation at a private hospital here after stem cells extracted from his bone marrow were used to regenerate worn-out cells in his heart. Hospital authorities said the procedure was performed in the northeast for the first time.

The patient, Gopal Krishna Goswami, underwent the procedure on November 21. Diabetic Goswami's heart was functioning at 29% of its capacity due to degeneration of cells. In medical parlance, he was suffering from 'chronic poorly compensated heart failure'.

"Stem cell therapy provides hope in cases which are beyond the reach of conventional treatment. Goswami was suffering from a weak heart. His heart had almost stopped pumping blood and he couldn't even walk a few steps," Goswami's surgeon Bikash Rai Das said.

The bone marrow was extracted from his hip bone, said the doctor. It was then sent to a facility in Mumbai for extraction of stem cells. The procedure was carried out in collaboration with the Mumbai-based stem cell bank and therapy centre. With stem cell therapy becoming increasingly popular, its introduction in the region is expected to usher in positive changes in the northeast's health sector.

Goswami will have to go through five sittings of stem cell infusion and his next sitting will be within 45 days, his doctor said. A therapy of this sort requires screening by a government-approved ethics committee. The candidate's medical history is probed before the go-ahead is given. Screening can take anything between seven to 10 days.

Stem cell therapy provides hope in cases which are beyond the reach of conventional treatment.

Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.

NIH scientists find that restocking new cells in the brain’s center for smell maintains crucial circuitry.

For decades, scientists thought that neurons in the brain were born only during the early development period and could not be replenished. More recently, however, they discovered cells with the ability to divide and turn into new neurons in specific brain regions. The function of these neuroprogenitor cells remains an intense area of research. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report that newly formed brain cells in the mouse olfactory system — the area that processes smells — play a critical role in maintaining proper connections. The results were published in the October 8 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

“This is a surprising new role for brain stem cells and changes the way we view them,” said Leonardo Belluscio, Ph.D., a scientist at NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and lead author of the study.

The olfactory bulb is located in the front of the brain and receives information directly from the nose about odors in the environment. Neurons in the olfactory bulb sort that information and relay the signals to the rest of the brain, at which point we become aware of the smells we are experiencing. Olfactory loss is often an early symptom in a variety of neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

In a process known as neurogenesis, adult-born neuroprogenitor cells are generated in the subventricular zone deep in the brain and migrate to the olfactory bulb where they assume their final positions. Once in place, they form connections with existing cells and are incorporated into the circuitry.

Dr. Belluscio, who studies the olfactory system, teamed up with Heather Cameron, Ph.D., a neurogenesis researcher at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health, to better understand how the continuous addition of new neurons influences the circuit organization of the olfactory bulb. Using two types of specially engineered mice, they were able to specifically target and eliminate the stem cells that give rise to these new neurons in adults, while leaving other olfactory bulb cells intact. This level of specificity had not been achieved previously.

In the first set of mouse experiments, Dr. Belluscio’s team first disrupted the organization of olfactory bulb circuits by temporarily plugging a nostril in the animals, to block olfactory sensory information from entering the brain. His lab previously showed that this form of sensory deprivation causes certain projections within the olfactory bulb to dramatically spread out and lose the precise pattern of connections that show under normal conditions. These studies also showed that this widespread disrupted circuitry could re-organize itself and restore its original precision once the sensory deprivation was reversed.

However, in the current study, Dr. Belluscio’s lab reveals that once the nose is unblocked, if new neurons are prevented from forming and entering the olfactory bulb, the circuits remain in disarray. “We found that without the introduction of the new neurons, the system could not recover from its disrupted state,” said Dr. Belluscio.

To further explore this idea, his team also eliminated the formation of adult-born neurons in mice that did not experience sensory deprivation. They found that the olfactory bulb organization began to break down, resembling the pattern seen in animals blocked from receiving sensory information from the nose. And they observed a relationship between the extent of stem cell loss and amount of circuitry disruption, indicating that a greater loss of stem cells led to a larger degree of disorganization in the olfactory bulb.

According to Dr. Belluscio, it is generally assumed that the circuits of the adult brain are quite stable and that introducing new neurons alters the existing circuitry, causing it to re-organize. “However, in this case, the circuitry appears to be inherently unstable requiring a constant supply of new neurons not only to recover its organization following disruption but also to maintain or stabilize its mature structure. It’s actually quite amazing that despite the continuous replacement of cells within this olfactory bulb circuit, under normal circumstances its organization does not change,” he said.

Dr. Belluscio and his colleagues speculate that new neurons in the olfactory bulb may be important to maintain or accommodate the activity-dependent changes in the system, which could help animals adapt to a constantly varying environment.

“It’s very exciting to find that new neurons affect the precise connections between neurons in the olfactory bulb. Because new neurons throughout the brain share many features, it seems likely that neurogenesis in other regions, such as the hippocampus, which is involved in memory, also produce similar changes in connectivity,” said Dr. Cameron.

The underlying basis of the connection between neurological disease and changes in the olfactory system is also unknown but may come from a better understanding of how the sense of smell works. “This is an exciting area of science,” said Dr. Belluscio, “I believe the olfactory system is very sensitive to changes in neural activity and given its connection to other brain regions, it could lend insight into the relationship between olfactory loss and many brain disorders.”

This work was supported by the NIH Intramural Program.

For more information about brain research, please visit http://www.ninds.nih.gov

NINDS is the nation’s leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

About the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery and cure. For more information, visit http://www.nimh.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

Making “scents” of new cells in the brain’s odor-processing area

Adult-born cells travel through the thin rostral migratory stream before settling into the olfactory bulb, the large structure in the upper right of the image. Courtesy of the Belluscio Lab, NINDS.

Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.